All the things I made this summer

It’s officially fall! It was nice to take a bit of a break from my self-imposed weekly quota of recipes over the summer. That said, I still managed to make many new recipes over the past 2.5 months. 

Here’s what I made this summer: 

• Banana-berry scones

• Nirvana enchilada casserole

• Spinach and black bean burrito bowl

• Summer seitan saute

• Chipotle sausage hash

• Strawberries and cream bread pudding

• Peachy raspberry cobbler

• Rosemary chocolate chip cookies

• Chimichurri-pumpkin bowl

• Baked garlic-curry fries

• Blueberry-maple-bran muffins

That's a lotta enchilada casserole

Since this is a lot of recipes in one post (and I have another cookbook I want to tell you about!!) here are the highlights in a table:

Recipe	Would I make it again?	Substitutions	Does it freeze?
Banana-berry scones	If I knew they would be eaten immediately	None	Yes, but does not keep well on the counter (soggy berries!)
Nirvana enchilada casserole	Yes, for a crowd	Cumin, be gone!	Hopefully
Spinach and black bean burrito bowl	Probably not	None	Nope
Summer seitan saute	Probably not	None	Maybe?
Chipotle sausage hash	Yes!	None	Yes
Strawberries and cream bread pudding	Shockingly, I don’t think so	None	Yes?
Peachy raspberry cobbler	Yes!	None	If you have any leftover…
Rosemary chocolate chip cookies	No	None	Sure
Chimichurri-pumpkin bowl	Probably not	Left out pumpkin seeds	The sauce would
Baked garlic-curry fries	Probably not	None	Maybe?
Blueberry-maple-bran muffins	Maybe	One (No maple extract)	Yes

My favorites from this batch were surprisingly the enchilada casserole (although I would cut the onions smaller, damn you, dull knife!) the chipotle sausage hash (easier than it looks) and the cobbler (super easy, super tasty). 

Now I want to tell you about a new cookbook, but first I have to tell you how I found it. Whenever I visit my dad and stepmom, my stepmom will inevitably have a handful of cookbooks she’s gotten from the library laying around in the kitchen. I love this! It’s so fun to just flip through the books and look at beautiful pictures of food. 

For whatever reason, I never decided to try this at home until recently. I wanted to see if I could find a vegan cookbook geared towards meal planning. Something that had a list of recipes for each week, along with a grocery list and guidance on the order in which to prepare things. I got five books from the library and the closest to what I was looking for was Vegan Yack Attack's Plant-Based Meal Prep, but I tried a few of the recipes and didn’t feel like I love them enough to purchase the book. 

I did end up buying The Vegan Week, which I would not consider a meal prep book (it just says things at the end of each recipe like, serve right away or meal prep for the week by storing in the fridge). However, it is absolutely fantastic. I’ve made the following from it: 

Look at that beautiful, crispy top!

• Farro Bowl 

• Carrot Bowl 

• Brownies 

• Pumpkin waffles 

• Crispy chickpeas 

The brownies were some of the best I’ve ever made (or had) in recent memory. They have the crispy shell on top just how I remember from childhood! They were a tad on the oily side so I plan to experiment with that but I’m so glad to have this recipe in my life. Same goes for the waffle recipe, it’s just perfect. Not too sweet, great pumpkin flavor and freezes super well. I just wish I had a bigger waffle iron so I could make more at once! 

Weekly reflection

I have just 7 recipes to go! I'm a little nervous about personally not liking some of the recipes I have left (I know I just don't like quinoa at this point for example, but I know other people do!) but I'm trying to keep an open mind and let myself tweak the recipes as-needed. I'm thinking about starting a soup Sunday tradition once the weather cools off more and I'm excited to try more from my new cookbook!